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Thomas Kuhn
Death 1996 -
Paradigms
With Kuhn's theory of science how major developments are categorized is called "revolutions". This is when one paradigm replaces another in the scientific community. He goes further to say that observational data is not justification for a paradigm to shift. The breakdown of paradigm shifts were included in his book as well as factors leading into scientific discoveries. -
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
"Just about everything written about science by philosophers, historians, and sociologist since then has been influenced by it" (Peter-Godfrey Smith). By writing this book Kuhn shifted the way science and the way everyone thought of it. It was the beginning of a new time and several philosophers agreed with his statements and others did not. -
Phases of Science
Thomas Kuhn broke Science Paradigms down into four different phases. He explained that this is the process to cause a shift in the paradigm, a domino effect. The phases are, normal science, model science, model revolution, and paradigm change. -
Relativism
Due to Kuhn's interpretation of incommensurability, it is why he is viewed to having a "relativist" view. With Kuhns paradigm shift he mentioned how does one classify the progression in science. Relativism "that the truth or justification of a claim, or the applicability of a rule or standard, depends on one's situation or point of view" (Peter Godfrey-Smith). -
Incommensurability
In Kuhn's perspective you gain dome things while losing some, this leads to the idea that different paradigms in a field are incommensurable. Whether it's from misuse of key terms or different "standards of evidence and argument". The other side of incommensurability is one of standards which Kuhn argued "that paradigms tend to bring with them their own standards for what counts as a good argument or good advice" (Peter Godfrey-Smith).